Fern's Stats
Adamant Fern -- "Fern" for short -- is the Twilight Caste of the party, a quiet inscrutable woman with a strange philosophy and enormous plans. Identity Caste: Twilight Concept: Inscrutable philosopher Anima: When Fern goes totemic, her anima is a bonfire of Essence all sun-golden and luminous rose. Streams of vibrant indigo glyphs in elegant Old Realm calligraphy write themselves on the air, weaving into a 3D mandala of extraordinary delicacy, its shapes reminiscent of fern-fronds and crystal sunbursts. The words spell out manifestoes of her philosophy... to anyone who can read dialects of Old Realm familiar at Meru and the Jet Court. All is highlighted in faint hints and shades of every color ever seen in a sunset. Fern's Experience Attributes Abilities * Dawn ** Archery 0 ** Martial Arts 0 ** Melee 0 ** Thrown 3 ** War 0 * Zenith ** Integrity 2 ** Performance 1 ** Presence 0 ** Resistance 1 ** Survival 0 * Twilight ** Craft (Elemental) 3 ** Investigation 3 ** Lore 5 ** Medicine 3 (+4) ** Occult 5 * Night ** Athletics 0 ** Awareness 0 ** Dodge 2 ** Larceny 0 ** Stealth 0 * Eclipse ** Bureaucracy 0 ** Linguistics 2 ** Ride 0 ** Sail 2 ** Socialize 0 Specialties: * Lore (The Wyld) 2 * Occult (Primordials) 3 * Occult (Sorcery) 1 * Performance (Public Speaking) 2 * Lore (First Age Vehicles) 2 Languages: Old Realm (native!), Skytongue, Seatongue, (fragmentary Flametongue) Advantages Motivation: Make Creation infinite, an equal to the Wyld. (She has a detailed plan for doing this.) Intimacies: "The still point of the turning world"; her followers, worshippers, and disciples; Daughter of the Amber Melody; "Don't kill innocents"; "Keep your word" Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, Valor 1 Willpower: 7 Health: -0x/-1x2/-2x3/-4x1/Incap. Essence: Permanent Essence: 4 (5 for purposes of sorcery; see the Hand of Rainbows, below) * Peripheral 44 (50 available, 30 of which is for sorcery only) * Personal 19 Committed: * 5 to Spear-Thrower of Exalted Prowess * -20 to Hand of Rainbows (commit 10, it returns 30) * 2 to her enchanted clothing * 2 to the jade medical tools * 5 to the Perceptive Coronet Charms and Combos * Dodge ** Shadow Over Water ** Seven Shadow Evasion * Lore ** First Lore Excellency ** Second Lore Excellency ** Chaos-Repelling Pattern ** Wyld-Shaping Technique * Resistance ** Ox-Body Technique (1 -1, 2 -2) * Occult ** Terrestrial Circle Sorcery ** Celestial Circle Sorcery * Terrestrial Circle Sorcery ** Emerald Countermagic ** Demon of the First Circle ** Flying Guillotine ** Incantation of Effective Restoration ** Caress of Healing Fingers ** Ritual of Elemental Empowerment ** Viridian Mantle of Underwater Journeys ** Spoke the Wooden Face ** Flight of the Brilliant Raptor * Celestial Circle Sorcery ** Sapphire Countermagic ** Demon of the Second Circle ** Glorious Solar Escritoire As always, Fern's Spells deviate cosmetically from the descriptions in the core book. Light on Thrashing Waters Method Wyld-Shaping Technique (simple, 20m 1wp) Second Lore Excellency (reflexive, 2m/success) Total Cost: 23+m, 2wp When Fern activates this combo, the glyphs in her anima change. No longer do they describe her philosophy; instead, they are disjointed sentences, familiar but somehow unknowable, as if they are excerpts from a book that you've read but cannot remember where or when, or even what it was about. In fact, all sentient beings can read them; each perceives the glyphs in his native language. They are, in fact, from a book -- a book written by Cytherea herself, describing the origin of the Primordials and what they did to make Creation. The excerpts give no clue as to their origin or subject, remaining tantalizingly out of reach of the intellect. Fern does not know the book exists, and is just as puzzled as anyone else regarding the glyphs, what they mean, and what they're doing in her anima. If she were to find out what they are, she'd scour Creation and many other worlds in search of their origin. Mechanically, the Combo is simple but powerful: by paying extra motes into the Excellency, she can buy the successes that determine how much she can create with Wyld-Shaping Technique. Equipment The equipment listed here is only what's needed to get a decent idea of what Fern looks like; see SotW Panoply for the full list. Also, she keeps quite a bit aboard the Coatl or the Diamond Resolve, or entrusted to the Thousand Hands Convoy; see Fern's Equipment for details. * Her silk robes, recently dyed deep red, Earth-enchanted to protect as well as a buff jacket. * In cold weather, a Fire-enchanted cloak to keep her warm. * In hot weather, a set of silk ribbon-strips Air-enchanted to banish the heat. * A pair of deceptively fragile-looking Earth-enchanted sandals. * A Hand of Rainbows, a powerful artifact resembling an arm-length glove of orichalcum and gemstone links. * Gold-and-sapphire robe clasps, shaped like curling ferns, worth Resources 3 each. * Her red Castestone, melted into a blindfold over her eyes * The Perceptive Coronet, a delicate orichalcum circlet set with a hearthstone * An extensive set of biomagitech limb replacements: both legs at the knees and her whole left arm are biomagitech constructs. The arm contains what was once a Spear-Thrower of Exalted Prowess. Combat Base initiative: 3 Soak: 7B/5L/0A (Earth-enchanted silk robes, 5B/4L) Dodge DV: 5 Attacks: Spear-Thrower of Exalted Prowess (ordinary javelin): Spd 4, Acc 9, Dmg 11L, Range 100, Rate 2 Spear-Thrower of Exalted Prowess (Essence javelin): Spd 4, Acc 11, Dmg 10L piercing, Range 150, Rate 2, 1m/javelin Spear-Thrower of Exalted Prowess (Holy Essence javelin) : Spd 4, Acc 11, Dmg 10L Holy piercing, Range 150, Rate 2, 4m/javelin Punch: Spd 5, Acc 5, Dmg 2B, Def 3, Rate 3 Kick: Spd 5, Acc 4, Dmg 5B, Def 1, Rate 2 Clinch: Spd 6, Acc 4 Expanded Backgrounds Resources •••• Wyld-Shaping Technique is an incredible source of wealth, when one knows how to use it. Treasures shaped from Wyldstuff and used, sold, and traded form the basis of Fern's considerable wealth. That which she can't keep herself -- which isn't much, as a lot of her wealth is in jade coin -- is in a vault with the Hands. Manse ••• Fern controls the Dragon-Arch of Keiala Maya, which she shares with Amber. She carries its greater hearthstone, a Neverdrown Opal. Manse ••••• Fern controls Mother's Sanctum and carries its hearthstone, the Key of the Mother. Artifact (Hand of Rainbows) •••• An arm-length glove of orichalcum and gemstone links, the Hand grants many benefits. For 10m commitment, it grants the user 30m to be used only for spells. It reduces casting time by one Shape Sorcery action, renders the bearer immune to casting disruption, and grants her a dot of permanent Essence for purposes of calculating spell effects only. Fern found it, abandoned and broken, in the library of her manse; an Incantation of Effective Restoration merged the links back together and granted her a potent tool. Artifact (Spear-Thrower of Exalted Prowess) •• This atlatl sizes itself to its user, acts as an artifact spearthrower for ordinary javelins, and can (for 1m/javelin) create spears from solid Essence. Fern found it in the library of her manse, beside the Whimsical Creation. It's now integrated into Fern's left arm, letting her throw ordinary or Essence javelins from an empty hand. Artifact (Spirit's Eye) •• This exquisite sphere of interlocking orichalcum plates and wires was implanted by the Raksha of the Jet Court, in place of the eye they stole from Fern. Only after her Exaltation did she discover that it works as well as her old eye -- better, since for 1m/minute it grants her Essence sight. At this point it's somewhat moot, being superseded by her Castestone. Artifact (Castestone) •• From a distance, this artifact just looks like a deep golden-red blindfold, but closer inspection reveals that its red amber surface melted straight onto Fern's face. It provides her with Essence sight permanently and for free, at the cost of normal vision. Some NPCs have referred to it as the Mark of the Mother; what this means is uncertain. Artifact (Perceptive Coronet) •••• This delicate orichalcum circlet's single hearthstone socket can fold down over the user's right eye to function as a three-dot Dragonfly's Ranging Eye (able to displace the user's vision to anywhere within a mile); the circlet is also a Dragon's Tear Tiara, providing +1 to all Perception rolls, or +3 if the task at hand requires occult sensitivity (except sorcery). Artifact (Maker's Loom) N/A A long bed of gleaming orichalcum adorns the center of Mother's Sanctum's hearthroom. The party has only seen it in action once, when it healed Fern entirely of three missing limbs by replacing them with priceless orichalcum prostheses... and integrated her atlatl for good measure. The limits of its capability remain to be seen. Artifact (Celestial Phoenix Cauldron) •••• This heavy cauldron sits in a corner of Mother's Sanctum's hearthroom, waiting for infusions of the proper ingredients so it may again automatically brew various alchemical formulas. See Wonders of the Lost Age for details. Cult •• Fern is worshiped as protector and teacher by the Thousand Hands Convoy, a society of sailing nomads who control a floating island she built for them. Flaws Callous, -2 bpts This was no willing decision on Fern's part. She is missing one dot of Virtue because a Faerie ate it. Amnesia, -2 bpts Thanks again to the nibbling of the Raksha, Fern remembers next to nothing of her life before the courts of the Fae. Only four things remain to her: a few fragments of Flametongue, her first sight of the Imperial Mountain, a dreamy impression of the Lap in spring, and her father's hands -- not his face, only his hands, but in perfect detail. The fact that she no longer knows her true name might be an interesting plot point. Unusual Appearance, -1 bpt Her exposure to Wyld energies concentrated all the color in Fern's nature into her eyes: her skin is abnormally pale and her hair snow-white, but her remaining eye shifts slowly through innumerable brilliant hues. (The other one is an orichalcum artifact.) That last issue might even be noticeable if she didn't have a red amber blindfold melded to her face. There is nowhere on Creation that she wouldn't look a stranger. Known Anathema, -1 bpt Tales of the Thousand Hands Convoy and their goddess, "the Walker on Verges," has spread, along with enough description of the cult, its practices, and Fern herself that a determined Wyld Hunt could find her, if it happened to pass through Abalone. Category:Sunlight on the Water Category:Adamant Fern